Quickie Vicky

The staff of HOT ROD spent an awful lot of time in the vintage drag car building at the ’12 Grand National Roadster Show. One-of-a-kind, original racers with drag racing pedigrees shared the room with a few select restorations. Even among bright orange Willys gassers, historic Pontiacs, and an Opel Kadette that looked surprisingly like a miniature Chevelle, this gleaming ’32 Ford Vicky stood out immediately. There was something familiar about that odd, updraft induction system, and as evidenced by the plaque in front of the car, a very similar setup was featured in HOT ROD in 1961. We had leafed through that Jan. ’61 issue a few months earlier, and there was no mistaking that this was the same car—or at the least a faithful re-creation.

1/65

Bill Workman from Long Beach, California, has built several hot rods and has a lot of friends with a long history in Southern California drag racing. Their reminiscing about ’60s drag cars often led to speculation on the whereabouts of the Vulcans car club’s ’32 Ford Victoria drag car that Bill had seen racing in the late ’50s. The original car was built by the Vulcans’ 25 members who also shared driving duties while racing it at Lions. Workman began researching the car’s history to see if he could find it. Several theories about where the car ended up were investigated, and a thread on the Jalopy Journal’s H.A.M.B. message board led to vintage photos and eventually to Tom Burniston, one of a dozen or so surviving Vulcans who happened to still live in Long Beach.

Armed with additional photos, and with help from Burniston, Bill kept up the search but never found the car. That didn’t stop him. Because Vickys are so rare, he settled on a steel ’32 sedan body that was advertised in Hemmings Motor News in Minnesota. The plan was to turn the Tudor into a Vicky. Lucky for Workman, Jeb Scolman at Jeb’s Metal and Speed, also in Long Beach, had a real Vicky in his shop to use as a guide. The conversion was no small task, as several of the bodylines are completely at odds with the contours of a Victoria. Still, thanks to a wooden buck formed using the real Vicky and with adept use of an English wheel, Jeb managed to perfectly mimic the rear half of the body. He then channeled it 3½ inches over a ’32 frame and recessed the firewall to accommodate the massive engine setback of the original car.

When it was photographed for HOT ROD in 1961, the Vicky ran a 4-71-supercharged ’51 Chrysler 331 Hemi with a small overbore. The fastest the car ran was 121.78 mph with Bruce Larmer behind the wheel. Tom Burniston managed 121.74, and the mag reported an e.t. of 11.75. Workman needs his repop to be way quicker than that. He set out to race competitively by using choice stock parts combined with the best the aftermarket had to offer. Legendary Gasser hero and engine builder Junior Thompson helped track down a ’57 392 Chrysler Hemi. It was bored 0.010 inch over and machined by Taylor Engine in Whittier, California, for 7.275-inch, forged-steel big-block Chevy rods and Venolia pistons to swing on a billet Velasco stroker crank. The crank added nearly half an inch to the stroke for a nice, familiar Mopar displacement of 440 cubes. The 8.5:1 bottom end is capped by ’55 Chrysler 331 heads ported by Bob McKray Performance and filled with 2.065-inch intake and 1.8-inch exhaust valves actuated by a Crane roller cam with 0.630-inch lift and an advertised duration of 314/318 degrees. The Vicky’s induction is what initially drew us to the car. It uses twin Stromberg NA-R6B carbs (see sidebar below) that pull air 180 degrees through a manifold Workman fabricated, then into a Weiand 6-71 blower set up by Wright-Way Blowers (WrightWayBlowerService.com).

The 11-inch slotted Strange brakes, wheelie bar, and parachute are modern concessions, but stopping the car at the big end after holding the Moon pedal to the firewall took precedence over period correctness. We wish we could tell you exactly how fast he’s going when he drops the laundry, but the car’s new and hasn’t yet run the quarter. Plans are to compete in the NHRA Heritage Series and the Nostalgia Eliminator III class, which runs on a 9.60 index. When the time comes, you can bet there will be plenty of Vulcans on hand at the Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso to see the car blast down the track.

Freak Carbs Lost and Found

Tom Burniston happened upon some odd updraft carbs in a military surplus yard in the ’50s and scooped them up, then the Vulcans had a 180-degree manifold fabricated to mount to the 30-percent-overdriven supercharger. The carbs were never disassembled—they were simply tuned with a lever on the body of each carb.

11/65

Burniston was drafted in 1959 and served for two years. When he returned to the Vulcans, the carbs were gone. He visited Ed Iskenderian’s shop in 2003 and mentioned the original Vulcans car. Ed said, “I remember that car, it had updraft carbs. I have those carbs up in my attic, do you want them back?” His best guess is that Iskenderian took the carbs in trade for the Hilborn injection that was used on the Vicky in 1961.

Recently, Burniston discovered that the carbs’ original application was an 800ci, air-cooled radial engine from a WWII tank. When Bill Workman opened the carbs to clean them, he found no wear on the brass and bronze pieces. They were reassembled and run the new 440 Hemi just fine.

How to Hack a Tudor Into a Vicky

Jeb Scolman at Jeb’s Metal and Speed in Long Beach, California, made the transformation from sedan to Victoria look easy, but take a look at the steps involved and you’ll understand how much custom fabrication was necessary.

Money Rules

The Vulcans club was founded in 1954 and had a club constitution. Among the amendments: “No member shall buy anything for more than $5 for the sedan without consulting the club.” And “$2 should be taken out of the treasury every week it [the car]goes to the dragstrip, for fuel.”

Street vs. Strip

Amendment No. 7 of the Vulcans club constitution stated that the car, “shall not be taken to any dragstrip without being towed.” That amendment was necessary after an unnamed Vulcan did, in fact, drive the car to the strip. It was usually flat-towed, often behind Tom Burniston’s ‘57 Ranchero. The original car had leaf springs that were used while being towed, but the axle was bolted solidly to the frame for racing. The car was never put on a trailer.

Sugar Daddy

Joe Mailliard sponsored the car and did all the block machining and head work in exchange for advertising for his automotive shop. Joe’s support and the meager dues from the 25 or so members of the Vulcans kept the car drag racing for years.

Way Before Mr. Spock

“I couldn’t figure out a name, so I looked through the encyclopedia,” says Tom Burniston. He came to the section on Roman mythology and saw that Vulcan was the god of fire, often depicted holding a hammer. The club’s plaque was an armored hand swinging a hammer shooting lightning bolts.

Was the Original Car a Death Trap?

“If it was, I wouldn’t have gotten in it. It passed tech back then. That was safe enough for us. It never did swerve,” Bruce Larmer says.

Rivalry

Glen Stokey in the Drifters car club out of Redondo Beach, California, raced a ’35 Ford five-window coupe that Bruce Larmer often lined up against. Each time the Vulcans tuned their car to eke out a faster time, Stokey was still right there with them. “He had a knack of going just as fast as he had to,” Bruce Larmer says.